Apogee HD

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ap.o.gee: The farthest or highest point; the apex; a final climactic stage

The Apogee™ HD is Swiftech's new flagship CPU waterblock. Close to 18 months in the making, it was designed to surpass its predecessor the Apogee™ XT in all critical areas:

Improved thermal performance with emphasis on Intel® and AMD® latest and upcoming processors: the HD is Socket LGA2011 (Intel®) and "Bulldozer" (AMD®) ready.

Reduced flow restriction compared to the Apogee XT Rev2.

Innovative features, with the introduction of the multi-port connectivity: two more outlet ports have been added for dramatic flow rate improvements in multiple waterblock configurations and when used with the new MCRx20 Drive Rev3 radiators that now also include two additional inlet ports (3 total); read more about "Flow Parallelization" in the section below including examples and in-depth explanations.

Improved thermal performance out of the box with the inclusion of high performance PK1 thermal compound

Cosmetic appeal: the Apogee HD is now available in two colors, Classic black or Fashionable white to match high-end case offerings from NZXT™, Silverstone®, Thermaltake and many others.

Ability to parallelize the flow to the graphics, chipset and/or memory waterblocks to improve overall loop performance by dramatically increasing the flow rate where it matters most: in the radiator and CPU waterblock. This exclusive feature can be easily activated when the block is used in conjunction with the new MCRx20 Drive Rev3 radiators that now also include 3 inlet ports.

Another benefit of such setup is that it is now possible to use reduced tubing size for the devices installed in parallel without unduly taxing the pump, resulting in less clutter, and easier tube routing in cramped spaces.

Swiftech's retention mechanism is widely recognized as the simplest and safest to use. It has been further enhanced with added attention to details and quality, such as hollowed thumb screws, and improved back-plate fabrication.

An elegant Multi-mount hold-down plate provides compatibility with all AMD Desktop processors: sockets 754, 939, 940, AM2, AM3, 770, F, FM1, as well as legacy Intel Server socket 771 processors. The kit is not included with the Apogee HD, but supplied for free (shipping not included), upon request.

Available in Black or White

The Classic All Black will give any system the high-tech look you are looking for, or the fashionable white combined with the new MCW82, Bridges, and MCP35x pump top (also available in white) will allow you to build elegant and distinctive systems.

Shipped with High Performance Thermal Compound

The Apogee™ HD ships with PK1 thermal compound highly rated by enthusiast users and reviewers (and confirmed by in-house testing) for its excellent thermal performance and ease of application.

Lower Cost

More affordable than the Apogee™ XT and other top Performing Blocks on the market (the HD also includes 1/2" fittings and clamps, whereas many of our competitors do not).

Certifications

The Apogee™ HD has been tested and qualified as "Fusion Thermo Compatible" by Asus®. Fusion Thermo refers to a new type of VRM heatsink that combines both a copper heat pipe and a watercooling channel, allowing users to choose either air or liquid cooling. This technology is currently featured in the RoG Maximus V Formula motherboard.

Example of parallel setup using the Apogee™ HD waterblock and MCR Drive Rev3radiator: the GPU, Chipset and Memory lines branch out from the three Apogee™ HD outlet ports, and each line connects to one of the MCR Drive Rev3 inlet ports.

Click on picture to enlarge

Among the most obvious benefits of harnessing the power of water-cooling is the ability to daisy-chain multiple devices for the CPU, Graphics, Chipset, and even memory.

Up until now, the most common way to do this has been to connect the waterblocks in series. In this type of configuration however, the pressure drop generated by each one of the devices cumulates, which substantially reduces the overall flow rate in the loop; and as the flow rate diminishes, so does the thermal performance of the system. Many extreme users have been resorting to adding a second pump to their system to mitigate this effect.

There is another strategy to connect multiple water blocks: the parallel configuration. It is very advantageous because in this type of setup, when two devices are parallelized, the flow is divided in half, but the pressure drop is divided by a factor of four, thus alleviating the need for a second pump. However, it necessitates splitting the main line using Y connectors, and it is seldom used because connectivity is awkward and cumbersome.

Enter the Multi-port Apogee™ HD waterblock, and MCR Drive Rev3 Radiators. With two additional outlet ports for the Apogee™ HD and two additional inlet ports for the MCR Drive Rev3 radiator, it is now possible to conveniently setup a high flow multi-block loop without using splitters. We will show below that while it always remains preferable to keep the CPU waterblock in series with the main line whenever possible, all other electronic devices in the loop are perfect candidates for parallelization. The resulting configuration is a mixed serial + parallel setup, i.e. the best of both worlds!

The following flow-chart compares two extreme setups (CPU + triple SLI + chipset + memory) serving to illustrate the increased flow performance that can be obtained from using a mixed serial + parallel configuration:

As mentioned earlier however, the consequence of parallelizing cooling devices is that the flow rate inside of said devices is also divided, therefore slower. So we now need to introduce another concept to further qualify the rationale behind parallelization: the heat flux generated by the different electronic devices, i.e. the rate of heat energy that they transfer through a given surface.

CPU’s

• Modern CPUs generate a lot of heat (up to and sometimes higher than 200 W), which is transferred through a very small die surface (the die is the actual silicon, and it is usually protected by a metallic plate called a heat spreader or IHS). Among other things, what it means in practical terms is that higher flow rates will have relatively more impact on the CPU operating temperature than on any other devices. For this reason, and in most configurations, the Apogee™ HD CPU waterblock will preferably always be connected in series with the main line, so it can benefit from the highest possible flow rate.

ALL other devices except radiators

• GPUs, whether they have an IHS or not, also generate a lot of heat (sometimes even more than CPU’s). However the physical size of the dies is substantially larger than that of any desktop CPUs. The resulting lower heat flux makes GPUs much less sensitive to flow rate. In fact, when both are liquid cooled, we can readily observe that the GPU operating temperature is always much lower than that of the CPU. For this reason, it is 1/ always preferable to parallelize multiple graphics cards with each-other, and 2/ when one or more GPU blocks are used in conjunction with one or more other devices like chipset and/or memory, it is always beneficial to parallelize the GPU(s) with said devices using the Apogee™ HD multi-port option.

• Chipsets, Memory, Hard Drives and pretty much everything else one would want to liquid cool in a PC can also be placed in the same use-category as GPUs, either because they have a low or moderate heat flux, or because the total amount of heat emitted by the devices can be handled without sophisticated cooling techniques. What it boils down to, is that they are even less flow-sensitive, and we submit that parallelization of these blocks should in fact become a standard.

Radiators

The higher the flow rate inside of a radiator, the quicker it will dissipate heat. For this reason, radiators will always remain on the primary line, just like the CPU block, in order to benefit from the highest possible flow rate.

In conclusion, we can see that the multi-port Apogee™ HD when coupled with the MCR Drive Rev3 radiators makes a compelling case for optimizing complex loops: it maximizes the flow rate where it matters most (on the CPU, and radiator) while offering a splitter-free parallelization of up to three other components (GPUs, chipset, etc.).

Alternate configuration:

The Apogee™ HD allows an alternate configuration: by using the main outlet as an entry port instead of the inlet, you can then parallelize the CPU with up to two more components: a second CPU, a GPU, a Chipset, etc. While it remains true as explained earlier that CPUs benefit from higher flow rate than other components, the few degrees in performance gains might not be consequential to some users. In these situations then, using the “alternate” configuration could for example be beneficial as follows:

• When cooling two CPUs, it might be desirable to parallelize them in order to maintain the exact same temperature for each CPU.

• For one of the quickest upgrades ever: one could get started with a CPU-only loop, and use the alternate configuration initially. Then when installing additional water-blocks (graphics for example), all would be needed is to drain the liquid out, replace the plug(s) by fitting(s), and connect the tubes to the new device(s). There is no need to remove the Apogee HD, no need to remove and recut tubes to length: the existing loop doesn’t need to be modified.

Tab 2

Pressure Drop Specification: The apogee HD has approximately 30% less pressure drop than the Apogee XT Rev2, as shown in this graph:

Comparative Temperature Data:

The following graphs reports the data collected from testing performed with actual retail processors under 100% load using CPU Burn. Published results are the best of a minimum of 5 mounts. These results are indicative of our test bench settings and of the tested processors only. Results may vary from one processor to another. Competitive data is provided hereafter for comparative purposes, and is only representative of the specific waterblock samples tested here. Two samples of the same competitive blocks were used for validation purposes.

Note: "Temperature Delta" means the difference between the average CPU core temperature and the average air temperature. This reporting method reflects the true efficiency of the cooling system because it eliminates ambient air temperature variations in the data being compared. Users are cautioned that the above data is provided for reference only, and is not directly comparable with CPU temperature values collected a) from an enclosed chassis and b) without deducting ambient air data.

Air temperature as reported by (3) individual thermal probes located at each fan inlet, with air temperature values collected at one second intervals and mathematically averaged over the duration of the test.

Tab 3

The housing is precision-machined from black or white polyacetal copolymer (POM).

The base-plate is precision-machined from C110 copper. Thermal design of the cooling engine is characterized by Swiftech's fin/pin matrix composed of 225 µm (0.009") micro structures; the matrix has been further refined with variable width cross channels to improve flow rate without affecting thermal efficiency, and fabrication quality has also been enhanced to reduce micro machining imperfections.

The mating surface to the CPU is mirror polished, in full compliance with Swiftech's highest quality standards

Dimensions:

Net Weight: 11.8 ounces (335 grams)

Tab 4

Motherboard and CPU Compatibility

Universal hold-down plate and retention mechanism compatible with all Intel® Core™ desktop processors: sockets LGA775, 1155, 1156, 1366, and 2011. The motherboard back-plate for socket 1155 is installed by default, and the back-plate for socket 1366 is included.

The socket 775 motherboard back-plate is not included with the block and is mailed to users free of charge upon request.

A separate hold-down plate is also available for AMD® processors, sockets 754, 939, 940, AM2, AM3, 770, F, FM1, and legacy Intel® Server socket 771. This mounting kit is mailed to users free of charge (shipping not included) upon request.

The waterblock is Socket LGA2011 ready, using the existing hold-down plate. A special set of screws for Socket LGA2011 requires installation and is included with all waterblocks shipped on or after 11-28-11. See notes below on how to obtain a free installation kit if you purchased a waterblock that was shipped to retail channels prior to this date.

Part # S1366-BP is the motherboard back-plate for Socket LGA1366 platforms (Intel® Ci7) and is included with the Apogee™ HD.

Part # S1156-BP is the motherboard back-plate for Socket LGA1155/1156 platforms (Intel® Ci7 and Ci5), and is shipped attached to the block by default.

Part # S775-BP is the motherboard back-plate for Socket LGA775 platforms (Intel® Core™ 2) . It is not included with the block and is mailed to users free of charge upon request (Procedure depends on the country where you live; see details below)